King Albert Park MRT Station
King Albert Park MRT Station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit station on the Downtown Line Stage 2 in Singapore, formerly known as the Bukit Timah Line. The station will serve the Bukit Timah corridor at the junction between Bukit Timah Road and Blackmore Drive, in an area which is largely residential; and staff and students of the nearby Ngee Ann Polytechnic. The station is located in the vicinity of MacDonald's Place, the Temasek Club, and Singapore Transport Museum. It bears the name King Albert Park after the nearby upper-class residential area with the same name. Students take the MRT to Beauty World or Hwa Chong. History Residents of Maplewoods condominium are concerned about the safety of both drivers and pedestrians near the condominium and are hoping for better solutions to the problems resulting from the construction of the station along Upper Bukit Timah Road after a dialogue session with the Land Transport Authority and their MP for Holland-Bukit Timah Christopher de Souza. The Authority offer to retain the footpath after pedestrian safety concerns were voiced. But keeping it meant the footpath will have to be narrowed to accommodate construction works. At the same time, proposals were also offered to re-draw the access into and out of the condominium for vehicular safety. Vehicles entering the launch shaft construction site will assemble opposite it and drive across the entrance. The residents complained that the construction site for the tunnel boring machine is a little too close to home for residents at Maplewoods as it will be right up to their main entrance. They claimed that is an accident waiting to happen. Construction works thus ceased on 6 June 2011. The Land Transport Authority hopes to start carrying out diversion works along Upper Bukit Timah Road on 3 July 2011, after delays due to concerns expressed by residents of the condominium. After further delays, on 12 July 2011 work on the train station along Bukit Timah Road resumed and picked up pace again within three days after work was stopped by the Maplewood residents who demanded that a launch shaft for a tunnelling machine to be sited at Sixth Avenue, but authorities have studied this proposal and found it not feasible, since the shophouses there will have to make way for construction works. About of the rightmost two lanes on Bukit Timah Road has been closed off to traffic after a nearby drain embankment caved in on 17 January 2012 in the course of tunnelling works for the Downtown Line. Engineers found a 14m precast segment of the Bukit Timah canal wall near the junction of Bukit Timah Road and Clementi Road dislodged, and some gaps in the ground were formed around that segment of the canal. It then stopped its tunnelling works to ensure safety and has begun to inject cement to stabilise the ground. Station layout Exits *A: Bukit Timah Railway Bridge, Covenant Community Methodist Church, Methodist Girls' School *B: Sime Darby Centre Transport connections Rail References Category:Bukit Timah Category:Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore) stations